10 keys to designing your ultimate dream home

When the kids move out, the house gets quieter and the calendar opens up. Understanding The best hobbies for empty nesters are the ones that give you something the busy parenting years left little room for: time outdoors, creative work, a sense of purpose, new skills or travel. Popular choices include pickleball, hiking, golf, pottery, photography, volunteering, learning a language, cooking classes and slow travel. Use this quick guide to match a hobby to what you want most right now: For nearly two decades, much of your free time likely revolved around school runs, practices and family schedules. Once that structure disappears, it is common to feel a mix of relief, sadness and uncertainty about what comes next. A new hobby helps in a few specific ways: If you are not sure where to begin, try Active hobbies keep your body strong and get you outside, and many of them come with a built-in community. Here are 12 active and outdoor hobbies for empty nesters to try. Hiking is one of the easiest hobbies for empty nesters to start: all you need is supportive footwear and a trail. Start with short, well-marked routes near home, then build toward day hikes in the mountains or along the coast. If you want to stay out overnight, camping can be as rugged or comfortable as you like, from backpacking and tent sites to glamping and RV trips. Pickleball is easy to learn, social by design and played on a small court, which makes it a natural fit for anyone looking for a new active hobby. According to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA), 24.3 million Americans played pickleball in 2025, and it was named the nation's fastest-growing sport for the fifth year in a row. Most communities offer beginner clinics, open play sessions and leagues. Golf is a low-impact sport you can play for decades, and it doubles as a reason to travel. Many empty nesters build trips around bucket-list courses or join a local club to meet new people. If the game becomes a passion, it can also shape where you spend your time. Tennis builds coordination, agility and strategy, and it can be as casual or competitive as you want. SFIA estimates 27.3 million Americans played in 2025. Look for adult clinics, doubles leagues or club round-robins to find hitting partners at your level. Cycling is a low-impact exercise that strengthens your heart, muscles and joints while covering a lot of ground. E-bikes have made it more approachable than ever, since pedal assist helps on hills and longer routes. Try rail trails, wine country loops or guided multi-day bike tours. Running and brisk walking require little more than good shoes, and joining a local club adds structure and friendship. Many clubs host weekly group runs, walking meetups and training programs for a first 5K or half marathon. Stand-up paddleboarding and kayaking are calm ways to explore lakes, bays and slow rivers while building core strength. Rentals and beginner lessons are easy to find in most waterfront towns, so you can try both before buying gear. Sailing combines time on the water with a real skill to master. Community sailing centers and yacht clubs offer beginner courses, and many empty nester couples eventually charter boats for trips along the coast or between islands. Snorkeling needs only a mask, snorkel and fins, and it can be enjoyed in any clear, calm water. If you want to go deeper, scuba certification courses teach the skills to explore reefs and shipwrecks around the world. Fishing can be a quiet solo morning or a group outing with friends. All it takes is basic equipment, a fishing license where required and some patience. From fly fishing mountain rivers to sportfishing offshore, it pairs well with travel. Gardening offers a sense of accomplishment, time outdoors and a steady connection with nature. Start small with raised beds, container herbs or a pollinator garden, then expand as your confidence grows. Some gardeners take it further with beekeeping. Bird-watching can happen from your backyard, a local park or a migration hotspot on the other side of the world. Free apps help you identify species by sight and sound, and community science projects let you log sightings that support conservation research. Creative hobbies give you a way to express yourself and process the emotions that come with a new stage of life. They are also a natural fit for reinventing yourself after the empty nest. Painting is a wonderful outlet for processing emotions during a time of transition. Try watercolor, acrylic or oil, and consider a class or plein air group that paints outdoors together. Your finished work can decorate your home, become gifts or even sell online. Pottery is hands-on and meditative, whether you are learning the wheel or hand-building. Local studios usually offer multi-week classes and open studio time, and you will end up with mugs, bowls and vases you can use every day. Photography helps you notice the world around you and document new experiences. You can start with the camera on your phone, then experiment with landscapes, portraits, wildlife or night skies. Photo walks and online communities make it easy to learn from others. Woodworking turns raw materials into furniture, cutting boards and home decor. Many cities have makerspaces or community workshops that provide tools and safety training, so you can learn without outfitting a garage first. Sewing is practical and creative: you can tailor clothes, reduce waste and make bags, curtains and gifts. Quilting adds a social element, since many guilds meet regularly to share techniques and work on group projects. Knitting and crochet are portable, calming and ideal for making handmade gifts for the people you love. Local yarn shops and online tutorials make it easy to move from simple scarves to sweaters and blankets. Jewelry making lets you express your personal style through original designs. Beginners can start with beads, wire and basic pliers, while metalsmithing and stone-setting classes open up more advanced work. Candlemaking is a relaxing, beginner-friendly craft that lets you experiment with scents, colors and containers. Homemade candles make thoughtful gifts and can set the mood in any room of your home. It is never too late to learn an instrument or join a choir. Taking music lessons challenges your memory and coordination, and many adult learners find it deeply rewarding to finally play the songs they have always loved. Journaling helps you process emotions and track personal growth after your children leave home. Some people take it further by writing a memoir or family history to share with their kids and grandkids, often through a local writing workshop. For many parents, the biggest change after the kids leave is losing the daily sense of being needed. These hobbies put your time and experience toward something bigger than yourself. Volunteering is one of the most direct paths to finding purpose as an empty nester. Whether you care about animals, literacy, the environment or hunger relief, regular volunteer shifts connect you with your community and people who share your values. For more ideas, explore these After years of guiding your own kids, mentoring lets you put that experience to work for someone else. Schools, youth organizations and professional associations often need tutors and mentors, and many programs require only an hour or two a week. Fostering gives an animal a temporary home while it waits for adoption, and it offers companionship without a lifelong commitment. Because fostering is flexible, you can pause between placements to travel, or look for Dance lessons combine exercise, music and social connection. Ballroom, salsa, swing and line dancing are all popular with couples, and many studios welcome solo dancers who want to meet new people. Reading as part of a group adds conversation and friendship to a solitary habit. Join a library or bookstore club, or start your own with friends. Looking for a first pick? Start with these Community theater and choirs offer a creative outlet, a regular schedule and a close-knit group. You do not need prior experience: many groups also need help with set design, costumes and backstage work. A supper club is a rotating dinner party where friends take turns hosting a themed meal. It is an easy way to stay connected, try new recipes and make entertaining a regular part of your calendar. Learning something new keeps your mind active, and wellness practices help you manage the ups and downs of the transition. Learning a language keeps your brain engaged and opens up richer travel experiences. Combine an app for daily practice with a weekly class or conversation group, and set a goal like ordering dinner in Italian or navigating a market in Mexico. Cooking classes help you build new skills and reconnect with a partner or friends over a shared meal. Try a local series on knife skills or regional cuisine, or book a class while traveling to learn dishes where they originated. Many colleges and universities offer noncredit classes for adult learners, and some allow you to audit courses in history, art or science. Lifelong learning programs for adults over 50 operate at more than 100 universities across the country, often with low membership fees. Genealogy combines research, detective work and storytelling. Online archives and DNA testing kits make it easier than ever to trace your roots, and the results can become a meaningful gift for your children. Wine education goes beyond tasting: structured courses, such as those offered through the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET), teach grape varieties, regions and tasting techniques. It pairs perfectly with travel, especially to wine country. Plan a trip with these Meditation can ease feelings of loneliness, sadness or anxiety that sometimes follow a child's departure. Guided apps, mindfulness classes and silent retreats are all good starting points. Yoga and Pilates build strength, flexibility and balance while calming the mind. Studios offer beginner and gentle classes, and many empty nesters build travel around yoga or wellness retreats. Tai chi is a slow, flowing practice known for improving balance, while martial arts like karate, judo and aikido build discipline and confidence. Both offer structured progress and a supportive community of fellow students. With fewer school calendars to work around, travel becomes easier to plan. These adventures for empty nesters turn a hobby into a reason to explore. For seasonal inspiration closer to home, browse these Slow travel means staying weeks in one place rather than rushing through a list of cities. It gives you time to learn a neighborhood, shop at local markets and settle into a routine. If you find a place you want to return to again and again, compare the Plenty of people learn to ski or snowboard later in life, and ski schools offer adult groups and private lessons at every major resort. Pair lessons with a winter getaway to one of these Walking holidays combine gentle exercise with the chance to see a region at ground level. The villages of the English Cotswolds and the hill towns of Tuscany are classic choices, with well-marked footpaths linking historic towns, pubs and trattorias. Many of the hobbies in this guide travel well. Here are a few pairings to inspire your next trip: Every parent experiences the empty nest differently, but many moms say the hardest part is shifting from years of managing everyone else's needs to planning around their own. These hobbies for empty nester moms (and dads) are a good place to start: The right hobby is one you will actually keep doing. These steps can help you narrow down the options: For many empty nesters, the hobbies that matter most are tied to a place: the golf course you play every spring, the trail you hike each summer or the wine region where you finally took that tasting course. Returning to those places year after year, and having the kids and grandkids join you there, is often what makes this chapter feel full again. The tension is that Pacaso allows buyers to purchase a share (1/8 to 1/2) of a fully managed luxury home through a Here is how that supports the hobbies you love: Learn more about

The kids have moved out, the calendar has opened up and, for the first time in years, travel can revolve around what you want to do. Whether you are still figuring out The empty nest vacation ideas below are organized by the kind of trip you want: romantic getaways for couples, outdoor adventures, warm-weather beach escapes and easy seasonal outings closer to home. You will also find a season-by-season planner, practical planning tips and a look at why so many empty nesters start thinking about a second home in the place they love most. The best empty nest vacation ideas are trips that were hard to pull off with kids at home: wine country weekends, slow weeks in Europe, bucket-list national parks and off-season beach escapes. Here is a quick overview of all 20 ideas in this guide, with who each one suits and when to go. Many empty nest vacation ideas for couples come down to the same thing: time together without a packed itinerary. These six trips are built for long dinners, unhurried mornings and rediscovering what you enjoy doing as a pair. Harvest season, which usually runs from late summer into October, is when Napa Valley feels most alive. Vineyards turn gold and red, crush is underway at the wineries and the weather is warm by day and cool by evening. Pair tastings along Highway 29 and the Silverado Trail with a spa day in Calistoga or a sunrise hot air balloon ride over the vines. For more ways to fill a long weekend, see this guide to Tuscany rewards couples who stay put. Spend a few days in Florence for the Uffizi Gallery, the Duomo and dinner in the Oltrarno neighborhood, then base yourselves in the countryside between Florence and Siena for Chianti wine tastings, hill-town wandering and a cooking class. Late September and October bring the grape and olive harvests, while spring offers wildflowers and mild temperatures. If your last trip to Paris involved rushing kids through the Louvre, this is your chance to see it differently. Spend mornings at neighborhood markets, afternoons wandering Le Marais or Saint-Germain-des-Prés and evenings at a bistro with no reason to rush. Spring and early fall are ideal, and easy day trips by train or car include Monet's gardens at Giverny and the Champagne region. The Cotswolds in southwest England is made for couples who like to explore on foot. Honey-colored stone villages like Bibury, Castle Combe and Bourton-on-the-Water are linked by footpaths, and the Cotswold Way runs about 100 miles from Chipping Campden to Bath. Plan walks that end at a village pub, and pair the trip with a few days in London, roughly two hours away. Palm Springs is at its best from fall through spring, when days are warm and dry. Spend time by the pool, tour the city's midcentury modern architecture (Modernism Week takes over each February) and ride the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway up Mount San Jacinto for cooler air and big desert views. Joshua Tree National Park is about an hour away for a day of hiking and stargazing. Here are more Named after a 1950s radio quiz show, Truth or Consequences sits on natural mineral hot springs along the Rio Grande. Book a private tub at a spot like Riverbend Hot Springs, where soaking pools overlook the river and mountains. Winter is an especially good time to go, when cool desert air makes a hot soak feel even better. For empty nesters who want to stay active, these trips trade the beach chair for trails, saddles and wildlife sightings. Sedona's red rock formations and canyons make a dramatic backdrop for a guided trail ride, and local outfitters cater to first-time riders. Spring and fall bring the most comfortable temperatures for riding, hiking to spots like Cathedral Rock or booking a jeep tour into the backcountry. Fall in southern Utah means cooler temperatures for Zion's most famous hikes, including The Narrows and Angels Landing. Angels Landing requires a permit through the park's lottery system, so plan ahead if it is on your list. Campgrounds book up quickly, so reserve early or stay in nearby Springdale. Jackson Hole puts Grand Teton National Park right outside town and Yellowstone's south entrance roughly 60 miles north. In fall, aspens turn gold and the elk rut fills the valley with bugling. In winter, sleigh rides through the National Elk Refuge offer a close look at thousands of wintering elk, and the town's Western charm makes an easy base between outings. Monterey Bay is one of the best places on the West Coast to see whales. Gray whales pass through on their migration from roughly December into spring, and humpbacks feed in the bay from spring through fall. Round out the trip with the Monterey Bay Aquarium, a drive along 17-Mile Drive and a night in Carmel-by-the-Sea. Summer on Lake Tahoe is all about the water. Paddleboard or kayak into Emerald Bay, hike a section of the 165-mile Tahoe Rim Trail and end the day with dinner on the shore. If winter is more your season, the same lake becomes a base for skiing at some of the West's best-known resorts. Warm-weather escapes are some of the most popular empty nest vacation ideas, especially in winter, when a week of sun is easier to take without school breaks to plan around. Los Cabos, at the southern tip of Baja California, is warm and dry through the winter months. It is also humpback whale season, roughly December through March, when whales can be spotted from boat tours and even from shore. Take a boat to El Arco at Land's End, play a round on one of the area's oceanfront golf courses and spend an evening in the gallery district of San José del Cabo. Punta de Mita sits on a peninsula on Mexico's Riviera Nayarit, north of Puerto Vallarta. It is quieter and more relaxed than a big resort town, with calm beaches, beginner-friendly surf, golf and fresh seafood in the nearby town of Sayulita. Winter brings humpback whales into the Bay of Banderas, and boat trips to the protected Marietas Islands are a highlight. Drive the Overseas Highway across the Keys, stopping to snorkel, kayak or simply sit by the water, then end in Key West for the nightly sunset celebration at Mallory Square. Winter is peak season, with warm, dry days that make a strong case for escaping colder climates. Hilton Head Island in South Carolina has an extensive network of paved bike paths, miles of flat, wide beaches and golf courses that draw players from around the country. Spring and fall bring comfortable temperatures for riding the island, touring the Harbour Town Lighthouse and spending unhurried afternoons on the sand. Not every empty nest idea requires a plane ticket. These seasonal outings make easy weekend trips, and many are the kind of thing that is hard to enjoy with a full family schedule. Cherry blossom season usually peaks in late March or April, depending on the weather. In New York, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's cherry trees are one of the city's great spring sights, and in Washington, D.C., the National Cherry Blossom Festival draws visitors to the Tidal Basin each spring. Check bloom forecasts before you go, since peak bloom can shift by a week or more. Each May, Tulip Time in Holland, Michigan, celebrates the town's Dutch heritage with millions of tulips, parades, Dutch dancing and local food. Pair the festival with a stroll through downtown Holland and a sunset on the Lake Michigan shoreline. Lake Michigan's sandy beaches and clear water make it an easy summer escape across the Midwest. Traverse City is a favorite for wineries on the Old Mission and Leelanau peninsulas, and nearby Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore offers dune climbs, beaches and scenic drives. Chicago and Milwaukee are options for a more urban lakefront weekend. Fall apple picking is a classic outing that is just as fun without kids in tow. In Massachusetts, Honey Pot Hill Orchards in Stow offers pick-your-own apples in a countryside setting. In Michigan, the Franklin Cider Mill is known for fresh cider and doughnuts beside the Franklin River. Go on a weekday to avoid the biggest crowds. Savannah's oak-shaded squares and historic homes come with no shortage of legends. Fall brings mild weather and plenty of evening ghost tours through the historic district, and the Sorrel-Weed House offers its own tours focused on the home's history and reported hauntings. By day, visit the Mercer-Williams House, made famous by the book Use this planner to match the season with the kind of trip you want. Planning an empty nest vacation is different from planning a family trip. A few habits help make the most of your new flexibility: Many empty nesters notice a pattern once they start traveling more: they keep going back to the same place. The wine country town where they celebrated an anniversary, the beach they visit every winter or the mountain town that feels like home after a week. At some point, booking another rental starts to feel like the wrong answer. This stage is also when many people rethink their primary home. Some downsize to free up space, time and equity, and these The empty nest years are about finally having time for the places and people that matter most: long weeks in the destination you love, dinners with your partner that don't end with a school pickup and a home where your grown kids and future grandkids can gather. The hard part is that owning a second home on your own often means the full purchase price and a second set of maintenance headaches, just when you want life to feel lighter. Pacaso was built for that moment. Pacaso allows buyers to purchase a share (1/8 to 1/2) of a fully managed home through a property-specific LLC, giving them a true real estate asset without the full cost of ownership.  Learn more about

Airbnb is a peer-to-peer marketplace: individual hosts list shared rooms, private rooms and entire homes, and prices, quality and amenities vary from listing to listing. A hotel is a professionally staffed business that offers private rooms and a consistent set of services, from housekeeping to a front desk, at a higher average price. The right choice usually comes down to how much you value predictability versus space, privacy and a lower per-person cost. Here's a quick side-by-side on the factors that matter most when comparing an Airbnb vs. hotel stay: For couples, a hotel is usually the cheaper option; Airbnb pulls ahead once a group can split an entire home. According to NerdWallet's analysis of nightly rates, a small Airbnb that fits two adults runs a median of about $125 per person a night, while a larger Airbnb that sleeps six drops to around $60 per person. A hotel room built for two runs a median of about $89 per person. What's included in each price differs too: Length of stay changes the math further. Airbnb hosts frequently offer weekly and monthly discounts, and per-night rates drop as trip length grows, which is part of why Airbnb tends to win on cost for longer trips. Hotels, on the other hand, rarely discount as steeply for extended stays outside of dedicated extended-stay brands. Booking timing matters on both platforms: for a full breakdown of when prices bottom out, see our guide to the One nuance worth flagging: fixed cleaning fees weigh heavily on short stays, so for a solo traveler or a couple booking one or two nights, a hotel often comes out ahead. Airbnb tends to pull ahead on cost when you can split an entire home across a group or stay a week or longer. Airbnb has helped guests find accommodations in popular destinations and remote getaways since 2008. Listings are typically quick to book, cancel and check into, but quality and safety can be harder to gauge than at a hotel. A hotel is a private business that offers travelers accommodations, shared facilities and staffed guest services. Hotels generally deliver a consistent experience across locations, but that consistency comes at a premium. Hotels generally have more built-in safety resources than Airbnb, though no lodging type is immune to incidents, and both are subject to data breaches since guests share personal information when booking online. Because Airbnb listings are managed by individual hosts rather than a single company, it can be harder to gauge the safety of a specific property ahead of time. Airbnb's main safety measures include: Hotels generally take a more standardized approach to physical security, including on-site security staff at many properties, in-room safety boxes, fire and carbon monoxide alarms, security cameras in common areas and key card access that limits who can reach guest floors.  Large hotel chains have also been the target of high-profile data breaches in recent years, so the safety comparison isn't one-sided; it mostly comes down to physical, on-property security, where hotels have the edge, versus digital privacy, where neither option has a clear advantage. Airbnb continues to gain ground, but hotels still hold the larger share of U.S. leisure travel. An Upgraded Points survey of more than 2,000 U.S. travelers, conducted in October 2025, found that 62% still choose hotels for trips, compared with 38% who choose a short-term rental like Airbnb or Vrbo. Travelers cited better amenities, fewer surprise fees and simpler booking and cancellation policies as their top reasons for sticking with hotels, and a majority said they believe hotels are more transparent about total pricing. Within the short-term rental category itself, Airbnb is pulling further ahead of its direct competitors. Key Data's Q2 2026 report showed Airbnb capturing 50% of reservations and 37% of revenue for professionally managed U.S. vacation rentals, up from 46% and 34% a year earlier, while direct bookings and other channels lost ground. For a closer look at how Airbnb stacks up against its closest rental competitor, see our Airbnb hosts can list shared rooms, private rooms or entire homes. Hotels mainly offer private rooms, from standard doubles to suites, though some luxury properties include villas or penthouses with a kitchen and living space. Airbnb listings span more than 220 countries and regions, including rural and off-the-beaten-path spots a hotel brand would never reach. Hotels are concentrated in urban areas, near airports and around major attractions, since the staffing model is harder to run in remote locations. Airbnb tends to be the better fit for longer trips, thanks to weekly and monthly discounts that vary by host. Hotels are built around short stays, though dedicated extended-stay brands exist for travelers who need a week or more. Hotels are generally required to comply with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines, including ramps, elevators and accessible parking. Airbnb lets hosts flag accessibility features like a step-free entrance or a wider doorway, but hosts aren't required to meet ADA standards, so it's worth confirming specifics directly with the host. Hotel checkout is typically simple: return the key or key card and go. Some Airbnb hosts ask guests to strip beds, take out the trash, run the dishwasher and lock up before leaving, so it's worth reading the listing's checkout instructions before booking. Weighing Airbnb against hotels makes sense for a one-off trip, but the calculation changes for travelers who keep returning to the same place. Rebooking a different Airbnb listing or hotel room every year means starting over each time: a new host, a new room, no guarantee the place you loved last summer is even still available. If a destination has become a repeat trip rather than a one-time visit, it may be worth exploring an Pacaso allows buyers to purchase a share (1/8 to 1/2) of a For a deeper look at how the cost and experience compare to booking a rental every trip, see our guide to Already have a destination in mind? Pacaso homes are available in a variety of

Airbnb isn't the only way to book a place to stay, and depending on what a trip calls for, it might not be the best one. Most people researching Airbnb alternatives are looking to solve one of a few problems: inconsistent listing quality, rising service fees, a lack of good options for a month-long stay, or the sense that booking a new rental in a favorite destination every time means both spending money that could be going toward something more permanent and starting over with a different host, listing, and experience each stay. The right pick depends on the trip: The sections below cover each category in more depth, followed by direct comparisons against three of Airbnb's closest competitors and a look at when to book for the best price. Travelers looking for luxury Airbnb alternatives are usually after one of two things: a more rigorously vetted rental, or a way to stop renting altogether. For travelers prioritizing price over amenities, a few platforms consistently undercut Airbnb on fees or inventory breadth: Airbnb's fee structure and nightly-rate model aren't built for stays measured in months rather than nights. A few alternatives are: None of these change the arithmetic for someone who returns to the same destination three, four or more times a year: each visit is booked and paid for on its own terms. That's the gap co-ownership is built to close, covered further down. Vrbo (Vacation Rentals by Owner) is Airbnb's closest peer-to-peer competitor, but the two platforms differ in a few ways that matter depending on the trip. Vrbo lists only whole properties, so there are no shared rooms or shared spaces, which makes it a stronger fit for families and groups who want privacy. Airbnb's selection is roughly triple Vrbo's, since it also includes shared and private-room listings, so it tends to win on last-minute availability and price flexibility. Fee structures differ too: Vrbo charges guests 6% to 12% of the reservation, while Airbnb is consolidating all hosts onto a single host-only fee of about 15.5%, with no separate guest service fee on those bookings. Airbnb's final migration waves land Sept 15, 2026 outside the EU and Oct 13, 2026 in the EU, so the host/guest split described here will be gone at publish. For the full side-by-side on rental types, pricing, reviews and safety, see the This comparison serves a different audience than the rest of this list: it's for someone who already owns a second home and is deciding how to rent it out, not someone booking a stay. Vacasa, acquired by Casago in 2025 and now run largely through local franchisees, is a full-service property manager that lists a home across Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com, then handles pricing, cleaning and guest communication. Rates are quoted market by market rather than published, and have historically landed in the 25% to 35% range of rental revenue, with add-ons on top. Self-hosting directly on Airbnb keeps more of the revenue (Airbnb's host-only fee runs around 15.5%) but costs an owner 14 to 20 hours a week running what amounts to a small hospitality business. Both options also run into local rules: Aspen caps short-term rental permits by zone and keeps waitlists in the tightest ones, and South Lake Tahoe reinstated permitted rentals in residential neighborhoods in April 2026 under a capped program with no guarantee a permit is available. For owners who'd rather skip the rental business entirely and simply use a second home themselves, that's a different question than Vacasa vs. Airbnb; see the Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy lists only professionally managed properties rather than individual host listings, so standards are set by the management companies Marriott has vetted rather than by individual hosts. The catalog runs to more than 180,000 homes across 10,000 destinations in 80 countries, a fraction of Airbnb's inventory, but consistent the way a hotel group is consistent. Stays earn and redeem Bonvoy points, carrying the same rewards across a hotel stay and a home rental. Airbnb wins on breadth and last-minute availability; Homes & Villas wins on predictability and rewards that carry across the rest of a trip. Booking timing affects price and availability across nearly every platform on this list, not just Airbnb. As a general rule, 3 to 6 months ahead is the sweet spot for a standard trip, balancing selection against price. Holiday periods and major events push that window out to 6 to 8 months, and the most in-demand properties in popular destinations can book up 9 to 12 months in advance. Last-minute bookings (about four weeks out) can occasionally turn up a deal, but the most unique or sought-after listings are rarely still available that close to a trip. Cancellation policies also vary widely by platform and by individual listing, so it's worth checking those terms before locking in a date. For a full breakdown of pricing factors and cancellation policy types, see For the destinations that keep pulling a family back, year after year, the pull rarely fades. What usually changes is the decision still waiting to be made: another booking, or something truly theirs. You've already earned the life built around that place. Pacaso is the decision that turns it into something lived in, not just visited. Pacaso allows buyers to own a share (1/8 to 1/2) of a home, held through a Because it's never rented out, it also sits outside the short-term rental permit caps that limit Airbnb and Vrbo in markets like Lake Tahoe or Aspen, and because it's real estate, the equity in it can appreciate and

The cost to build a luxury home depends on several factors such as lot size, home dimensions, finish quality and regional labor rates. On average, building an entry-level luxury residence costs between $200 and $500 per square foot. This means that an average 5,000 sq ft luxury home costs between $1 million and $2.5 million to build. For a more detailed understanding of how much you'll spend when you When calculating the cost of a luxury home, consider primary factors such as your home's size and desired features to get a ballpark estimate. The cost of specific features depends on whether you seek entry-level, premium or bespoke options. Building custom luxury homes isn't a one-size-fits-all process.There are more cost variables compared to a standard new build. Therefore, understanding the most common cost drivers can help you form a more accurate budget. The location of your luxury home build plays a large role in its overall cost. This is because median home prices vary widely across the country. One of the first expenses in building a luxury home is the cost of your homesite. According to the National Association of Home Builders, For example, a fully wooded lot will require tree removal, rocky soil will cost more to excavate for a foundation and land with a steep grade might need extra engineering to make it suitable for building. Plan for 3-8% of your budget to go toward site prep alone (excluding the cost of the land itself). Luxury home building is all about customization, and there are a few options when it comes to creating blueprints for your new home. The least expensive is to work with a developer and choose from pre-existing floor plans, with some customization options.  For a fully custom home, you'll need to hire professionals to put your vision on paper, including an architect and engineer, and possibly an interior designer. These are often considered "soft costs", meaning they're not direct construction costs, and they vary greatly. According to Ralston Architects, According to the National Association of Home Builders, This is where you get to have the most fun and implement your favorite The cost to build a luxury home also includes essentials like roofing and siding, and the materials you choose will impact your budget. Some of the Approximately 17% of your budget will go toward paying your contractor and covering miscellaneous expenses, such as site waste removal and building permits, so be sure to factor those costs in. You may also run into building issues, authorize overtime hours for laborers or select additional upgrades that further add to the luxury home build cost. Choosing to build luxury homes is an ambitious endeavor, but it's not the only option. If a luxury second home is in your future, but the time or cost to build a luxury home feels out of reach, Pacaso might be the perfect fit. Pacaso's co-ownership model offers all the comfort of a fully furnished, professionally decorated luxury home in a stunning location. Plus, you'll get the

Home maintenance is the routine care a property needs to keep functioning safely and efficiently: things like checking smoke detector batteries, servicing an HVAC system, resealing a deck or flushing a water heater. It's preventive by design. Rather than waiting for something to break, a maintenance routine catches small problems, a loose gutter, a slow leak or a worn seal while they're still cheap and easy to fix. This is different from a home improvement checklist, which covers projects that add value or change how a space looks and functions, like a kitchen remodel or a new deck. Maintenance protects what you already have. Improvement adds to it. Most homeowners need both, but a maintenance checklist is the one that prevents the improvement budget from getting eaten up by avoidable repairs. A checklist turns maintenance from a vague intention into a routine you actually follow. Without one, tasks get remembered only when something fails, which is usually the most expensive time to notice a problem. A few reasons a routine home maintenance checklist pays for itself: For homes with a A basic home maintenance checklist starts with the tasks that need attention most often. These are the routine checks that catch problems early, whether you're at the property every day or checking in periodically. Some tasks only need attention when the weather shifts. A seasonal home maintenance checklist is one of the most effective ways to stay ahead of weather-related wear, since each season puts different stress on a home's systems. Once a year, usually at a season change, it's worth stepping back for a deeper inspection. An annual home maintenance checklist should cover the systems and structural elements that don't need constant attention but do need a thorough once-over. A second home that sits empty for weeks or months at a time needs a different kind of preparation than a primary residence. Before an extended absence: Once you're away, monitoring the home remotely closes the gap between visits: smart leak sensors, security camera alerts and recurring service visits from a trusted provider all help catch problems before they compound. This is the work Maintenance tips for homeowners are easier to apply when they're organized by system rather than by calendar. Here's a preventive maintenance checklist broken out by area, with a general sense of how often each one needs attention. Every Pacaso home comes with a dedicated Home Manager who handles this checklist directly: routine upkeep, seasonal preparation, vendor coordination and the kind of remote monitoring that catches issues before they become expensive. Owners get a text or a call when something needs a decision, not a maintenance log to manage themselves. For homes in higher-touch markets or with premium finishes, this looks like Pacaso allows buyers to purchase a share (1/8 to 1/2) of a fully managed home through a property-specific LLC, giving them a true real estate asset without the cost of whole home ownership. Maintenance, cleaning, vendor payments and seasonal prep are already built into the home's operating plan, so there's no checklist to hand off and no property manager to research and hire on your own. To see what fully managed ownership looks like in a destination you love, explore

Real estate investment returns describe the profit a property produces measured against what an investor put in to acquire and hold it. There isn't one single number that captures this. Instead, investors lean on a handful of metrics depending on what they're trying to understand: Each metric answers a slightly different question, so the "right" one depends on whether you're screening a deal quickly, comparing financed properties, or evaluating a multi-year hold. Most real estate agents and investors treat 8% to 12% cash-on-cash ROI as a reasonable benchmark for a rental property, though the right number shifts with local market conditions and the specific property type. A useful sanity check is to compare that figure against a widely available alternative: the S&P 500 has averaged roughly 10% annually over the long run.  If a real estate investment can't match or beat that on a risk-adjusted basis, it's worth asking whether the illiquidity and hands-on effort of owning property are worth it for that particular deal. For value-add commercial deals, where an investor is actively improving a property to boost income before selling or refinancing, a good IRR typically runs 15% to 20%, reflecting the added risk and work involved. Average returns vary widely by asset type, holding period, and how the return is measured: Location does most of the work in explaining why any individual property lands above or below these averages. Federal Housing Finance Agency data consistently shows appreciation varying dramatically by region within the same reporting period, with some metro areas gaining close to 9% while others lose value over the same stretch. Job growth, housing supply, and local demand drive most of that spread. This is the part of the returns conversation that's changed the most in the past couple of years, and it's worth updating if you last looked at it during the 2022 to 2023 rate-hiking cycle. Back then, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate quickly, and both mortgage rates and cash yields climbed together. For a stretch, top high-yield savings accounts and CDs paid north of 5%, close to or even above what many investors were paying on a mortgage. That created a real, if temporary, arbitrage: park cash in a high-yield account, let it earn more than the mortgage cost, and pocket the spread. The math looks different in 2026. The Fed has held its benchmark rate at 3.50% to 3.75% through the year after cutting through 2024 and 2025, and deposit rates have cooled in step. Today's best high-yield savings accounts and CDs pay roughly 4% to 4.2% APY, down from the 5%-plus peak. Mortgage rates, meanwhile, haven't fallen nearly as far. Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed average sat at 6.69% in early August 2026, still elevated relative to the sub-4% rates common a few years earlier. In practical terms, the cash-parking strategy that made sense when savings yields were nearly matching mortgage rates doesn't pencil out the same way today. Cash reserves still earn a respectable return, but they no longer offset a mortgage's cost the way they did at the 2023 peak. At the same time, borrowing itself costs more than it did a few years ago, so heavily leveraged purchases face a higher return hurdle before they generate a meaningful profit. That combination is pushing more investors to focus less on timing a rate spread and more on total return: appreciation, income, and tax benefits weighed against a clear benchmark, alongside ownership structures that reduce how much capital and leverage each dollar of real estate exposure requires. "Best" depends on your goals, but a few categories tend to show up when investors are chasing high return real estate investments today: Whichever category fits your goals, the deals that tend to hold up best share one trait: they don't depend on a favorable interest rate spread to work. They generate a return from the property itself. A few levers matter more than others once you've settled on a property type and market: For many buyers, the goal isn't purely financial. It's owning a place that brings family together, whether that's a beach house for summers or a ski chalet for winter weekends, while still building equity in a real asset. The tension is that a full-price purchase at today's mortgage rates ties up a large amount of capital in one property, in one location, financed at a rate that's still meaningfully higher than a few years ago. Pacaso allows buyers to purchase a share (1/8 to 1/2) of a That appreciation potential isn't hypothetical. An RCLCO analysis of second home resale data from 2021 through 2024 found Pacaso shares outperformed their broader luxury markets in several destinations, including Napa-Sonoma, CA (12.4% versus the market's 0.4%) and Malibu, CA (9.6% versus the market's 2.2%). Past performance doesn't guarantee future results, but it illustrates the kind of asset-level upside that a well-chosen second home can offer alongside personal use. Pacaso owners can also use If you're weighing whether to buy a whole second home or explore

Yes. Italy places no blanket restrictions on foreign buyers, and there is no national quota limiting how much property non-Italians can own. Ownership rests on a legal principle called the condition of reciprocity, set out in Article 16 of the Disposizioni sulla legge in generale, the general provisions that precede the Italian Civil Code: a foreign national can buy real estate in Italy if their home country allows Italian citizens to buy property there under similar terms. For buying property in Italy as an American, this works in your favor. The United States permits Italian citizens to purchase real estate freely, so American buyers pass Italy's reciprocity test without complication. The same is true for British, Australian and most other non-EU buyers. EU and EEA citizens face no reciprocity check at all and are treated exactly like Italian nationals. A few practical points apply to every foreign buyer, regardless of nationality: If you are weighing Italy against other European markets, our guide to The Italy notary process is the backbone of every property purchase, and it works differently than in the United States. Here is how a typical transaction unfolds: The notary, or notaio, is a public official appointed by the state rather than a representative for either the buyer or the seller. They draft the deed, verify legal title, collect the required taxes on the state's behalf and are personally liable for the accuracy of the transaction. If you cannot attend the closing in person, you can grant power of attorney to a lawyer or trusted representative to sign on your behalf. This centralized, notary-led model has a close cousin in France, where a notaire plays a similar role. If you are also considering the French market, our guide to Are there property taxes in Italy at the time of purchase? Yes, and they are the largest one-time cost of the transaction. The specific taxes depend on whether you are buying from a private seller or a developer. On top of these, budget for legal fees (roughly 1% to 2%) and, if you used an agent, a commission of 2% to 4% plus VAT. Altogether, total closing costs on a second home purchased from a private seller typically run 9% to 15% of the purchase price. Once you own the home, two recurring taxes apply: Tuscany property taxes tend to sit toward the higher end of the national range in the most sought-after areas. Florence applies close to the maximum 1.06% rate, and the "Chiantishire" belt of countryside between Florence and Siena, popular with foreign buyers for its farmhouses and vineyard estates, tends to price similarly.  Because IMU is calculated on the cadastral value rather than market value, the annual bill is usually far smaller than the purchase price might suggest. A modest Tuscan farmhouse with a cadastral value in the low thousands of euros might generate an annual IMU bill of only a few hundred to around €1,000, while a high-value historic property in central Florence can run into several thousand euros a year. It depends on how long you have owned the property. If you sell within five years of the purchase date, any gain is subject to a 26% substitute tax, calculated on the difference between the sale price and the original purchase price plus documented costs. This tax is settled directly through the notary at closing. After five years of ownership, the capital gain is exempt from tax entirely for individual, non-business sellers, including non-residents. There is also an exemption if the property served as your primary residence for most of your ownership period, though non-resident owners rarely qualify for this since primary residence status generally requires Italian tax residency. Americans who sell Italian property should keep in mind that Italian capital gains tax does not eliminate U.S. reporting obligations. Any gain typically still needs to be reported on a U.S. tax return, and a foreign tax credit may be available for tax paid to Italy. This isn't tax advice, so it's worth confirming your specific situation with a cross-border tax professional before you sell. Prices vary enormously by region. Nationally, asking prices for existing homes average somewhere in the €2,000 to €2,500 per square meter range, but that figure masks wide swings between Italy's most in-demand cities and its quieter provinces. In Florence, prices have been climbing steadily and now sit around €4,600 to €4,700 per square meter on average, with prime central neighborhoods like the historic center and Oltrarno commanding considerably more. Across the wider Tuscany region, the average drops closer to €2,500 to €2,650 per square meter, though this ranges from roughly €3,600 per square meter in Lucca province down to around €1,500 in Arezzo province. Rural farmhouses needing renovation can be found well below the regional average, while restored villas in Chianti or coastal Versilia often clear €1 million. If you're browsing properties for sale in Italy more broadly, expect the widest price range of any major European second-home market: from modest inland apartments under €150,000 to multimillion-euro estates in Tuscany's most prestigious pockets. For buyers drawn to rolling countryside, historic hill towns and a slower pace of life without giving up world-class art and food, Tuscany remains one of Italy's strongest second-home markets. Florence anchors the region with an established international community, direct flights, and English widely spoken in the city center, while the surrounding countryside, from the vineyards of Chianti to the medieval towers of Siena, offers a different but equally compelling lifestyle. If you are still deciding where in Italy to put down roots, our guide to the There's a particular kind of pull that draws people back to Tuscany year after year: long dinners under a pergola, the light on the hills at golden hour, a place that feels like it's yours even if you only visit a few weeks a year. The catch is that navigating a foreign legal system, a notary-led closing process and a tax structure built around cadastral values can feel overwhelming from thousands of miles away, especially when you only need the home part of the year. Pacaso allows buyers to purchase a share (1/8 to 1/2) of a